Pamela Baggett-Wallis & Persuasion Communication: Crisis Management, Media Training & PR

Total communications tools include:

Issue management for competent campaigns. Witness training for lobby support and attorneys. Message and media training that puts you in control. Media relations to keep you in the news. Research as foundation for communications. Logical, reader-friendly web content. Memorable speeches with "zing." Media-friendly news releases. Entertaining, informative magazine articles. Critical communications audits. Crisis management and preparedness. Blogs to expand your influence. Check out "KaBOOM Mitigation"

... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Philanthropy: head of the class or dunce cap?

Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?

Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.

There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.

The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December. Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got a dime.

This isn't the first donation race between these two.

Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.

As memorable as the $1 million donation is, will it neutralize the negative feelings caused by Chesapeake reniging on a promised donation?

Labels: branding, Chesapeake, crisis_communications, customer service, media relations, philanthropy, XTO

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Philanthropy moves you to the head of the class, or earns a dunce cap

Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?

Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.

There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.

The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December.
Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got anything.

This isn't the first donation race between these two.

Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.

Not only did one company give a sizable donation, the other one reneged. Now, how do you feel about the two companies?

Labels: Chesapeake, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service, philanthropy, XTO

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Philanthropy moves you to the head of the class, or earns a dunce cap

Competing oil and gas drilling companies both promised a sizable donation to a school district, but only one followed through. Guess which one people are likely to sell drilling rights to?

Yup, it’s the one that followed through with a breathtakingly large donation, at least in the history of the school district. Fort Worth-based XTO donated a record-breaking $50,000 to the Carroll Education Foundation, an independent nonprofit that benefit the district. The single largest contribution to the group previously was $10,000.

There are several other reasons why this donation is interesting, as pointed out by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, XTO's rival, has the mineral-rights lease to drill for natural gas under all 402 acres owned by the district itself. The XTO donation, which was made last week without fanfare, will make XTO the "presenting sponsor" at the foundation's only fundraiser this year.

The foundation had been talking with Chesapeake officials about a donation since December. Chesapeake even gave a verbal commitment in February, but despite numerous requests for a signed contract, the foundation still never got anything. Where'd I put that dunce cap?

This isn't the first donation race between these two.

Chesapeake announced in late March that it would donate $1 million to the United Way to establish the Barnett Shale Endowment Fund. Also that day, the YMCA rushed out a news release saying that XTO was donating $500,000 to help modernize and expand its workout space.

Not only did one company give a sizable donation, the other one reneged. I send a heartfelt "thank you" to both companies for so beautifully demonstrating the right and wrong methods to position your business in the community's mind. The Chesapeake brand definitely has lost some luster.

How do you feel about the two companies?

Labels: branding, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service, good manners, media relations, philantrhropy

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

What’s in your go-kit?

First of all, I hope you know what a go-kit is. Whether it’s a cardboard box or a crush-resistant, impact-resistant metal case, a go-kit is the container you can grab and run to the site of whatever disaster/crisis hits your company. When it hits the fan is too late to start pulling these items together.

Obviously a laptop computer is one item. Maybe even a satellite phone. Communication is what this is all about, so you need these mechanical tools. How a about a digital camera?

Depending on the size of the company and how many hats you wear, you also may need a company check book to compensate individuals either injured or who suffered property damage. And release forms for individuals who are ready to settle right then and there.

Other items that don’t fit into your go-kit but are equally important:
• “Stealth” Website ready to punch in the pertinent information for news media, general public and even your employees.
• Responsive communication tree both ‘up’ and ‘down’ the communication ladder. Watch for more on this issue in another blog.
• Trained spokesperson on the ground while main spokesperson is en route.
• Expert investigators, as necessary.
• Company or hired-gun defense lawyers to talk to the inevitable ant trail of plaintiff attorneys.

Oh, and for the go-kit, don’t forget a change of underwear!

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management, disaster readiness, media relations, vulnerability audit

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

By now, American Airlines should be handling it better

For the second time in as many weeks most of the American Airlines fleet is grounded, stranding thousands of passengers. If the people at the top care one whit about their passengers, there’s scant evidence of it.

Before anyone says “they’re doing the best they can,” let me jump in and point out their “best” is quite an indictment of the airline and its crisis management planning—or lack thereof. As part of the booking process, American Airlines asks first for my cell phone number, then home, then work, AND my email address.

Riddle me this, Batman. Why do they request this information if they don’t plan to use it for notification of delays and cancellations? American Airlines should turn its booking agents into “cancellation” agents to notify people of the problems before they show up at the airport. Not workable? Well, FIND A WAY!

You may sense some antagonism from me here. Well, you’re absolutely correct. I had the unenviable experience of traveling with a handicapped child from Anchorage to Austin, with a three-day layover to visit family in Seattle. We arrived at SEATAC several hours early to reduce any stress. My husband and I both carry Treos so we can receive email and phone calls. The plane was grounded in Houston for mechanical problems, not an act of God. Hence, the airline had to get us home on their nickel.

Long lines formed at the check-in. They were explaining, one-by-one as people got to the front of the line, that the plane was cancelled and they were trying to book us on another flight. Then they told the entire group to go to another airline where we would be given seats. We troupe en masse to the other airline, which did not win any Brownie points either. The second airline told us that AA didn’t notify them and that we had go back to the AA counter. So we all troupe back over there, only to discover the three service lines were now down to one.

In the meantime, I called Southwest Airlines and booked seats for the three of us. But American Airlines doesn’t have a contract with Southwest and refused to pay for the tickets. Instead, American wanted us to stay overnight and hope to get on a seat the next morning. We took the Southwest flight.
Months and months later, with communication by snail mail since they do not have a customer service phone line, American magnanimously sent us tickets for future flights on American Airlines. Like I’d ever fly AA again! But here’s the kicker—they totally botched my son’s name, so it would have been another go-round to get that fixed.

I opted out. And that’s what thousands of passengers are likely to do.

Whew! I feel better now. That’s a three-year-old tale, and I’m still angry. How does an airline reclaim customers after events like that and these plane groundings? Two weeks ago, the grounding was taken with a grain of salt, although the airline screwed up by not contacting passengers. This time, the grounding was because the mechanics didn’t handle the first grounding successfully. Do you trust their air-worthiness now? Free advice: AA should invite some of the reporters who specialize in aviation to show them what the airline is doing to make their planes mechanically safe.

The only way American Airlines can reclaim passenger appreciation and confidence beyond mechanical issues is to totally retool their booking and cancellation process. How about having a back-up phone center on standby to call passengers and handle rebooking on the phone?

Why not call in off-duty staff to handle passengers who get stuck in the airport. To rent buses to take people to hotels? How about putting up big signs at entrances to airport terminals notifying passengers BEFORE they turn in rental cars or even get out of their cabs?

Oh, the infinite ways American Airlines, or any airline, could improve customer service!

As long as reporters can interview distressed mothers stuck in the airport without enough diapers, or even money, to take care of their children, the airlines will suffer continued passenger anger and rejection.

The airline that chooses to make some of these changes in how they handle cancellations and does a good job of publicizing the changes will be the last one left flying.

Labels: American Airlines, crisis_communications, crisis_management, customer service

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Bloggers have major influence

Blue Daze obviously does not like gas pipelines. She took advantage of a distribution line explosion in far south Texas to promulgate fear.

A local firefighter said they were not sure exactly how this explosion happened but they are aware of similar explosion that happen across the United States. "They happen every now and then, they're pipelines and they're subject to wear and tear just like any other equipment that's out here."

Events like this make for great TV coverage, which is just natural. But where was the statement from the pipeline operator? Why didn't the company have a spokesperson on the spot? Or if that wasn't possible, they certainly could have conducted a phone interview.

The greater issue here, in addition to the local news coverage, is the widespread influence of bloggers like Blue Daze. The story appeared on more news sites than I could count, including one that caters to the paranoid.
If you care what the public thinks about your business, be certain you're monitoring blogs just as carefully as the traditional news media.

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management, media relations, Texas

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Paying forward pays big dividends

Two competing restaurants are offering a reward for finding a killer. It’s difficult to think of a better example of paying forward to develop a reservoir of good will.

Trudy's and Taco Shack are Austin, TX restaurants that have grown over the years to multiple locations, all within the city. They each have a business in the vicinity of a small park where a blind homeless man was murdered. And they each anted up funds to offer $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

Showing humanity above and beyond what typically is expected of a business is inspirational to the cynics of the world (I count myself as one of them) and raises the bar for corporate good citizenship. It also brings in customers who feel good about the eateries and adds a smile and bounce in the step of servers.

Even if, over the years, the public forgets about this positive action, news media in the future will uncover it when they do research on the companies should they experience a crisis down the road. When the companies speak, their voices will be heard and much more likely to be believed.

Thanks, y’all, for being good corporate citizens. I’m jazzed by the example you’ve set, and I even have a bit of bounce in MY step because of you.

Labels: Austin, crisis_communications, crisis_management, Taco Shack, Trudy's

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Wizard of Oz: Number One no-no in crisis management

In my list of issues I address in vulnerability audits I’ll have to add “officer stupidity.”

Hometown hero (I live in Austin) John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, was outed as rahodeb, author of years of anonymous blogging that included negative comments about competitors.

Not only was it stupid—exposing this company to public ridicule, FTC scrutiny, and undermining employee confidence—it was amazingly childish. It reminds me of passing notes in class in junior high school, hoping they weren’t intercepted by the teacher, but getting a thrill out of the very process.

One has to wonder whether the chairman of such major business doesn’t have something better to do with his time. I have enough trouble working for my clients and trying to find time for my own blog. I can only conclude that he is the master of delegation!

Now that it has hit the fan, Mackey chooses to address reporter, investor and employee questions via the Whole Foods blog. Who wrote that? His attorneys? That’s how it reads. And a very unsatisfactory read at that.

Hiding behind his blog, Mackey is mimicking the Wizard of Oz rather than addressing the public’s questions. We need to hear his voice and read his body language to judge sincerity. In the meantime, we’re left to imagine our own answers to the questions: The Number One no-no in crisis management is hiding from the public!

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management, John Mackey, vulnerability audit, Whole Foods

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

And the little children shall lead the way.

He’s not so little, but a Boulder high school junior who took on Fox’s Bill O’Reilly recently conducted his interview in the most professional and assertive manner I’ve ever seen! Check it out soon before the link “dies.”


Jesse Lange did it the right way.
1. He wore a suit and tie in counterpoint to the knit sport shirt worn by the teen presenting an opposing view.
2. He was respectful but firmly presented his point of view.
3. He was totally prepared with the exact words of an adult speaker at a high school meeting. The direct quotation disproved the contention that the speaker promoted drug use. Jesse held to his quotes in spite of what O’Reilly said.
4. Jesse then turned the tables, quoting from a section of O’Reilly’s book for kids. O’Reilly said Jesse was quoting him out of context. What fun!
5. The best part, in my opinion, was when O’Reilly called Jesse a pinhead. Jesse took the high road and ignored what could have been a rabbit trail that would take up precious seconds and eliminate the opportunity to address the real issue.
This young man has a terrific future ahead of him. Watch for his name in the next decade.
I highly recommend that you subscribe to www.Mediabistro.com. You’ll stay up to date on who’s working where and other behind-the-scenes media info.

Labels: Bill_O'Reilly, crisis_communications, crisis_management, Jesse_Lange, media relations, Media_Bistro

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

Be first, but make it right!

We all know he who gets the message out first wins. Everyone else must attack from below--not a favorable point for attackers. The same truism holds if you are trying to correct your own message.

Austin, Texas, which prides itself on being a blue county in a red state, a liberal bastion of tolerance and the live music capital of the world, took a huge hit this week. A news release from the police department characterized the beating death of a Hispanic man as being by a mob of black men attending a Junteenth celebration. Local,regional and national news media picked up the story immediately. Austin came off looking racist to the national media and locally, leaders in both the black and Hispanic communities tried to fend off potential trouble.
By Day 3, the Austin mayor and police held a news conference to try to change the words and impression from that news release. The local media picked it up, but the national media ignored the “misstatements” and “further investigation reveals” comments. The city has a black eye and race relations are tenuous.
I’m curious who put wrote the release based on what information and who approved it. But that’s just my curiosity. It won’t change a thing.
The lesson learned is to follow the advice of Texas hero Davy Crockett: “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.”

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

How full is your reservoir?

Your reservoir of good will, that is. The trust people have in you or your business or industry. When the inevitable crisis occurs, will you start with an ample supply of water to put out the fire, or will you be calling in neighboring fire departments?

Your reservoir of good will is much the same as your brand ID: what gut reactions do people have when your name is mentioned? If you’re one of the oil companies, that gut reaction calls for some Pepto-Bismol. Who, outside the industry, believes the oil companies are not artificially manipulating costs? Everyone loves to hate the oil industry right now, even Texans and Alaskans! (I speak from personal experience, here.)

How could that distrust, even hate, be changed? Well, Shell Oil is making every effort with town hall meetings across the country by an extraordinarily well prepared executive taking all comers in a calm, courteous manner. But, gee, wouldn’t it have been so much better to deflect most of that distrust and anger in the first place?

Quick, name a charity supported by the brand of gasoline you buy. No? Well, any brand, then. No, Venezuela’s CITGO donations to low-income northeasterners don't count.

No new oil refineries have been built in a decade because the oil companies say it is too expensive to build a refinery with the now-mandated pollution controls. Yet the Shell spokesman made it sound like the industry in general and his company in particular are caught in a financial squeeze between the cost of oil production and Uncle Sam. Do I believe that? Do you?

We’d both be more inclined to believe them if we had reason to feel warm and fuzzy about the oil companies in the first place. Admittedly an oil derrick or tank farm are unattractive poster children for the oil company cause. (Unless you grew up in West Texas and thought they were mighty pretty!)

The point here is that all businesses, associations and governmental agencies must be known for the good they do before the public questions the bad. Your crisis management plan should begin with a detailed public relations plan to create the ties between your organization and your public. Your “brand” should be thought of fondly or at least neutrally by your customers. It’s a long process of walking your talk to create that warm, fuzzy feeling, but it’s miles shorter if you begin the journey before a crisis requires you to climb out of a very deep hole before beginning your hike.

What do you have in your reservoir?

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

EAPs Can Avert Crises

Think you have to fire that valuable employee because s/he has become too difficult to work with? Think employee assistance program instead.

When a formerly favored employee becomes unreliable, testy and/or poorly groomed, s/he likely is going through a personal crisis that’s translating into an office crisis. While personnel laws prohibit your asking personal questions about causes, you can point out the deficiency. But rather than just hoping this behavior will change, refer the employee to an assistance program that will address mental wellness.

You don’t have an employee assistance program? OK. Surely you are foresighted enough to have mental health parity in your insurance plan. No? It costs too much, you say? How much is it going to cost to fire, hire and retrain a new person? How much has that employee cost you before you’re forced to speak to him or her about the problem?

The touchstone of crisis management is avoiding it in the first place. Make it possible for employees (and yourself) to access mental health services. The mind and body are not separate any more than the heart and lungs. One cannot be healthy and productive without the other.

Crisis management is an investment that always pays for itself.

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

We haven’t had any problems yet.

YET!!!!
The most used word to avoid crisis planning and the most predictive word to prove the need for crisis planning.

As a crisis manager, “yet” is the most frustrating word I hear. It reminds me of the statistic about burglar alarms. People don’t install them or use them until their home is broken into. (A confession here: We became lax about using our home alarm and, sure enough, were broken into in the middle of the night as we slept. You can believe we’re fanatical about using it now!)

So, back to my future clients. Please don’t wait till you experience officer or employee malfeasance, a disastrous accident, or even a natural disaster to call me. Let’s work together now to plan for the “yet.”

Labels: crisis_communications, crisis_management

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... but if you do, your silence will be interpreted any way the questioner wants. This blog is about crisis management and public relations conducted with integrity, mutual respect and skill.

How to clean your boots when you’ve stepped in it.

(In response to friends, here's a bit of advice I wrote last year.)
When you step in stuff, you don’t leave it on your boots in hopes they will clean themselves. The recent flap about VP Cheney’s handling, or NOT handling, the hunting incident in South Texas is a textbook example of poor crisis management.Here’s what Texas mothers tell their kids, or at least what I told mine:

* You’re going to make mistakes along the way, but when you do, I better hear about it from you before I hear about it from my bridge club. That means the veep should have been the first to inform the public.

* Only 2-year-olds turn their back on you with the thought that if they can’t see you, you can’t see them. Cheney is considerably older than 2, and everyone can see him. The most interesting point that he overlooked, however, and hasn’t been reported by any of the news media that I’ve seen to date, is Texas law about mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds. Physicians must report ALL gunshot wounds to local law enforcement. I think Cheney thought he’d be able to fly under the radar, except for that pesky law.

* Don’t try to wiggle out of the truth by just telling me part of it—I can see through you. Sending the ranch owner out, a day late, to speak to a friendly reporter only made the public want to know what the rest of the story was.

* You’ll be grounded if you don’t mind me! Since Cheney usually is in an undisclosed location anyway, this one doesn’t have much bite for him. He only appears before friendly audiences, anyway.

* If you lie to me, I won’t be able to trust you again for very long time! This speaks for itself.

* You just proved to me that you’re not responsible enough for (whatever perk the child, usually a teen, wants). In another country, the vice president could have been stoned to death, because he built a nice pile of rocks for other to throw at him.

* No, “everyone’s mother lets them do it” won’t work with me, young man! This family has rules and standards and I don’t care what other parents supposedly do. Did he really think “stonewalling” would work?

* Just dry up those tears—they don’t work on me. Going to friendly Fox for an interview and displaying emotion in his voice was all well and good. But he made it all about him (It was the worst day of my life) rather than about the man he shot.

* You’re a day late and a dollar short! In this case, four days too late.

* You know EXACTLY what I expect of you! I expect him to follow his friend to the hospital, meet the media after seeing that his friend was going to be OK, and saying how terrible he felt about his carelessness that caused his friend’s injury, instead of allowing speculation that it was the friend’s fault for getting in the way. Any bird hunter knows the safety rules, and Cheney is an old bird, hunter that is.

* Don’t bring those s*#^^* boots back in this house. Clean your boots immediately before the stink sets in and can’t be eliminated.

Labels: Cheney, crisis_communications, crisis_management, politics, Texas

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Communications by Committee Creates a Crisis

I think I’ve discovered the ultimate communications crisis: devising, much less executing, a communications plan for a large, disparate association of organizations with one common goal but many different motivations.

Can you imagine a baseball team with no coach? Or the universal image of herding cats? That’s what I’m dealing with as the PR counsel for one of the member organizations. Their main mode of internal communications is a series of e-mails that reveal their SAT test scores on reading comprehension. The secondary mode is a series of irregularly called and irregularly attended meetings. AARRRRRRGGGGHHH!

These people, for the most part, are totally confident they know what’s important and are not listening to their communications people who are trying to work together in spite of their clients.

What would you do with such egos? How would you herd these cats?

Labels: crisis_communications

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